The invention relates to a device and method for feeding an article or several articles in a packaging, for example of tubular bags, into a package, e.g. a folding box.
It is known to move a tubular bag by means of a slide member into a lying, open folding box. This is done either when the folding box stands still or when the folding box is continuously moved, while the concurrently moved slide member moves the tubular bag into the folding box. It is furthermore known to move a stack of superposed tubular bags into a folding box.
The known device and the known method have the disadvantage that the feed-in process takes a long time since the slide member must cover a relatively long feeding path between the position of receiving a tubular bag and the removal position moving the tubular bag into the box. Even in the case where the slide member is driven relatively quickly, this feed-in path limits the packaging speed.
The basic purpose of the invention is to increase the feed-in performance and thus the packaging speed.
The purpose of the invention is attained by providing a movable carrier for receiving at least one article, which carrier can be moved quickly toward the receiving package by means of a drive, and which carrier can be stopped abruptly or slowly at the package so that, due to a utilization of the kinetic energy of the at least one article, it slides off the carrier and moves into the package during a slowing down or a stopping of said carrier. The article is in the method of the invention accelerated in horizontal direction and is then thrown, utilizing its kinetic (or inertial) energy, at a drop (insertion) point into a laterally open package (e.g. box).
The invention has the advantage that the feed-in performance and thus the packaging speed is increased. Directly after the dropping off the article, the carrier can again be returned in order to receive a new article so that the return occurs at least partially during the drop and thus still during the feed-in process (i.e. the article is still being fed into the package). This results in a time advantage so that the time until the next feed-in process is reduced (i.e. adjacent feed cycles overlap). A further time advantage results from the carrier covering a shorter path than a conventional slide member for the feed-in process and also for the return since the remaining path to the package from the carrier-stop position is traveled during the dropping action by the article without the carrier. This shortened path results also in an increased packaging speed.
Additional advantageous developments of the invention are described as follows.
When the carrier has a hold-back element on its side not facing the package for holding the article during an acceleration phase, it is then possible to hold the articles on the carrier in a safe manner so that they do not slide from the carrier during the acceleration.
An electromagnetic linear drive is particularly suitable as the drive for the carrier. With such a drive it is possible to achieve extreme (large) acceleration values up to approximately twenty times the acceleration due to gravity. The drive can also slow down at a significant rate and can be adjusted very precisely. With this drive it is possible to realize in a simple manner high article dropping speeds at precise time intervals at an exact drop point, which can still further increase the packaging performance.
An accelerated carrier can also be stopped abruptly by means of a stop element so that the articles are thrown therefrom and fly into the package from the carrier. When in addition a spring is provided on the stop element, then not only the movement of the carrier is cushioned in order to protect the structural parts but the kinetic energy of the carrier is also utilized in order to compress the spring, and thereafter the carrier is pushed back by the relaxing action of the spring.
When the carrying surface of the carrier is a sliding surface, then an easy sliding off of an article or several articles from the sliding surface is possible, which results in an exact dropping time.
When the package is transported passed the drop point, it can then be filled with the suggested dropping technique during a transport to a further packaging station along the transporting direction. The feed-in (insertion) process can thereby be carried out more safely, when the package for the purpose of the feed-in process is moved passed the drop point with a reduced speed and is again accelerated after the feed-in process has occurred. Because of the decreasing speed, the direct feeding of an article occurs at a relatively low speed of the package. The speed of passing packages can be relatively high between two feed-in processes in order to altogether achieve a high transporting performance for the packages.
A safe and reliable feed-in is achieved when the dropping speed of an article is at least eleven times greater than the transporting speed of the package at the time of the drop or the arrival at the package at the drop position. It is thereby also possible that the transporting speed is zero and the dropping speed has a relatively random value. A transporting speed unequal to zero at the time of the drop or the arrival of the article in the package and permanently for a device for transporting of the package has, however, the advantage that the device must not be repeatedly accelerated from standstill, which would mean a loss of time.
It is possible to respectively insert the articles into relatively close packages and to thereby avoid unnecessary free space in the direction of the transporting speed of the packages, when at the time of the drop a predicted interval in the transporting direction of the packages are provided so that the drop occurs while the packages are still spaced by the distance of the predicted interval from the point of entry of the article or of the articles into the packages. In addition, when this needed space is less, the greater the relationship between dropping speed and transporting speed is.
The articles can, when utilizing their kinetic energy after their drop and prior to reaching the respective packages, slide over a slide path in order to further reduce the path of movement of the carrier. The slide path can thereby have a drop (incline) in order to prevent a significant reduction of the kinetic energy of an article.